Internet giant Google has long been strangers to its role as a smartphone maker. With its Pixel line of phones, Google’s hardware team has repeatedly restarted with tech experiments, most notably on the 2019 Pixel 4 model with its short-range radar sensor and face recognition, and last year’s Pixel 6 with a radically new design with camera bar.
But now, with the new Pixel 7, Google seems to have finally found a line. The devices presented at the beginning of October are in many ways an iteration of the previous year – many things have improved, but nothing is really new, with the exception of the cameras in the premium Pixel 7 Pro model.
What’s really new in this model year is that Google is offering a real ecosystem for the first time: In addition to the phones, Google also launched the Pixel Buds Pro ear studs in the summer – and Google is delivering its new Pixel Watch alongside the new phones out.
All the devices together finally offer what Apple has been delivering for years: Uniformly designed devices that work together in the same software with a coherent common operating system. It also works great with the phone and headphones, but unfortunately there are still problems with the new watch – but more on that later.
Like its predecessor, the Pixel 7 Pro is highly recommended – perhaps the best smartphone currently running on the Android operating system. Like Apple, Google uses its own hardware, in particular the new Tensor G2 chip at the heart of the device has some special features.
Because the Pixel 7 is a smartphone that is completely shaped by Google’s development work in the field of artificial intelligence – and the G2 chip is optimized for it. In classic performance tests, it is significantly slower than Apple’s current A14 chip, and it also has to admit defeat to competing models from Qualcomm and Samsung.
However, this is not noticeable in everyday use. Instead, it is noticeable that the chip is surprisingly economical with the battery at the expense of peak performance, which is really only relevant for a few online games anyway.
In the test, the Pixel 7 Pro easily worked for a day and the morning after with one battery charge, only then does it have to go to the charger. It charges quickly there, but not as fast as the competition, needs a good 30 minutes for a 50 percent battery charge and almost two hours to charge from completely empty to completely full.
The new Google Android 13 software appears to have been designed from a single source and is restrainedly elegant. And artificial intelligence (AI) is involved everywhere: in speech recognition, in the translation functions, in the Google Lens image search or in the smart helper Google Assistant.
Above all, however, the AI helps with the camera: Google has changed little in terms of hardware camera equipment compared to the Pixel 6, the sensor of the zoom camera has even become smaller. But Google has changed the software and brought various algorithms of artificial intelligence into play.
The result is amazing: in low light, the photos from the 50-megapixel sensor of the Pixel 7 Pro surpass all the phones known to the author, even the current iPhone. The color reproduction and blur compensation is really good without making the photos look unnatural. The G2 chip works under full load – and shows how far computer photography has come.
The way the Pixel can track subjects, accurately render skin tones, and balance light and shadow in HDR photos is only possible with high-performance chips. In this respect, the smartphone easily outperforms even relatively expensive digital cameras.
Google’s programmers are also relying on artificial intelligence for the new zoom function, combining several images that the phone takes simultaneously from different cameras. The result is a zoom that delivers good images up to about 10x magnification, but the 30x zoom is more of a gimmick than a real feature.
The new screen of the Pixel 7 Pro is significantly brighter and looks sharper than that of the Pixel 6 Pro in direct comparison. He can also adjust the refresh rate to save battery: For games or fast animations, the device shows a butter-smooth 120 frames per second. When nothing is going on, the refresh rate is lowered to save battery. The user is not aware of this.
What remains is the appearance of the noble devices: The glass housing looks harmonious, the camera bar makes sense and allows you to put the smartphone down without tipping it over. However, the Pro device in particular with its polished metal parts is very sensitive to scratches in the test. A protective cover is recommended.
The interaction with headphones and watch shows that Apple is still a step ahead in some respects: the operation is sometimes a bit tricky. The voice recognition on the headphone with “Hey Google” does not work as seamlessly as hoped in the test, mainly in noisy environments, Google would have to do it again here.
The Pixel Buds Pro headphones are currently often sold in a bundle with the phone and are still very worthwhile. The sound and mainly the noise canceling function are excellent, better than Apple’s.
The Pixel Watch is less convincing in the test. The new operating system Wear OS 3 is well designed, but difficult to use in some places. This is also due to the relatively small round screen of the Pixel Watch. It’s perfectly adequate for watch faces, but it’s too small for reading notifications, music control or even map navigation.
The operation with the rotating crown works well, but the additional button on the side is difficult to press and does not have any useful functions. A lot has to be fiddled with by touch on the mini display, and Google’s voice control assistant reacts a little hard of hearing.
Above all, the integration of the watch’s important fitness functions into the operating system on the phone is not well resolved. Because Google has integrated its own fitness app “Fit” into Android, but the watch only delivers its data to the Fitbit app, which also belongs to Google, for which the user has to create their own user account.
In the test, it also annoys you with advertising for paid premium functions and delivers completely unrealistic calorie consumption data. It contradicts the data of the Google Fit app when jogging, for example. Watch and phone measure differently. Google needs to fix that. The group already has more routine with the phones, which users of smartphones and watches notice quite quickly.
The list prices of Pixel 7 Pro, Google Watch and Pixel Buds Pro add up to a good 1500 euros – of which 899 euros for the Pixel 7 Pro with 128 GB of memory, 429 euros for the Pixel Watch LTE and 219 euros for the Pixel Buds Pro.
Sure, Apple is more expensive, but Google hasn’t been able to price in the prestige bonus Apple brings as a brand. That’s why the watch in particular seems a good 100 euros too expensive.
But unlike Apple, retailers also know that little works without discounts and so there are currently many combination offers for the devices at the start. In particular, the combination of Pixel 7 Pro and headphones is expressly recommended – with the clock, on the other hand, Google has to add at least the software.
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